This invention relates to financial information systems and more particularly to procedures for prioritizing data display and calculation in a financial information system.
One of the tasks of a financial information system is the presentation of information in a spread form. Such information is presented in reports and analyzed, often by quarter, annual or monthly segmentation. For planning purposes it is helpful to be able to perform analysis on the basis of certain assumptions. For example, it may be known that an expenditure is not to exceed a certain dollar amount during a specified fiscal quarter and that total amounts are not to exceed a certain annual expenditure. Hence, there is a need for a user to be able to prioritize financial information according to specific limitations.
In the past, general-purpose computerized spreadsheet systems have been used wherein cells employed or contained calculations based on the content of other cells. There has been no mechanism therein to prioritize the value contained within one cell through automatic means. Each cell containing priority information would require that all other cells dependent on the priority cell contain functional calculations especially adapted to the value in the priority cell. The result has been a complex task for the end user which is susceptible to undesired errors.